Google’s web.dev Scoring Tool and Your Local Business

Google’s web.dev tool is great news for small businesses that seek to improve their business websites and compete more effectively online. Web.dev, Google’s laudable initiative, has two components, Tests and Learning. You can test your website for performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices.

Performing the audit is simple and free. Enter the URL of the website to be tested and click on “Run Audit.” The results serve as an exceptional measure for where your website stands for function, accessibility, security and searchability. It informs you of what aspects of your site pass muster and the things you need to work on.

Google doesn’t just leave it at that. For example, for issues that impact performance, render blocking resources, heavy images, unused CSS, unused form elements, etc., the results are accompanied by suggestions on what to do.

Google flags the major issues in red, so you can address those first. Those are issues causing lag in website load times, poor image rendering, and what features of your website is driving traffic away. If you’re running a WordPress website, implementing the suggestions can be as easy as installing the relevant plugins. Do that, run the test again and you should notice improved results.

Under most conditions, the improvements can be easily made, and the positive effects are accrued quickly. A site that loads quickly gets more traffic. If, with a few quick fixes, and very often that’s what it takes, you can improve site load times, then taking the steps is a no-brainer.

Adding a CDN (Content Distribution Network) allows for quick page loading across different regions, regardless of where the server is located. There are many you can choose from.

Learning how to use web.dev

Go to the web.dev/learn section for cutting edge information and the most relevant information (It’s from Google, remember?) on how to boost traffic with fast load times. Discover how to ensure consistent website performance even if the network performance is not up to the mark. Learn how to maintain site and user data security. Get the lowdown on how to make your site easily discoverable on search engines. Consider for a moment the wealth of information at your fingertips and the benefits awaiting your business when you begin using that information.

The modern web’s capabilities are at your disposal for websites and apps. Leverage them. Monitor your site across important performance metrics for desktops and mobiles. It’s an easy way to get ahead of competition, and you don’t need any real technical knowledge. Your website developer can easily pitch in, and as mentioned earlier, if your site is on WordPress, you have plugins to do the job for you.

Since the information is from Google, you can rest assured it’s reliable. This said, don’t be too elated if the test you run returns an SEO score of “100.” Everyone seems to be scoring a 100 on that parameter. Most likely, this is because of how Google web.dev tool defines SEO. It sees SEO in terms of easily crawlable and understood content. But we know that as far as traffic is concerned, there’s much more to good SEO practices than that.

Keep visiting our blog for the latest on SEO, web design and local business marketing. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us for your SEO and website needs.